Swapping knives for spanners and sockets

It’s hard to imagine a time when openings for auto apprentices were scarce, but back in 2007, when Carl Nelson was doing his pre-trade training at Lloyd’s Garage Paremata, the situation was vastly different from today.

Needing a job and with no available openings, he opted to become a butcher’s apprentice instead, but still had an eye on getting out of the boning room and back to the workshop. He finally made the switch a few years ago and couldn’t be happier.

“There are better opportunities in this industry and I always liked the idea of this as a job rather than butchery,” Carl says.

“It is a lot more challenging, there’s a mental aspect to it and there’s a lot more to working on cars to cutting meat, you have to be pretty focused.”

And how does he find it switching from butcher to mechanic?

“It’s pretty similar, only you get more cuts working as a mechanic,” he jokes.

Carl originally came to the business while doing work experience working Thursdays and Fridays while he was at Polytech doing his pre-trade in automotive engineering.

“That was in 2007, there wasn’t an opening here and I tried to get an apprenticeship elsewhere, but no one was hiring, I couldn’t get anything,” he says. Then one of his mates suggested he look at doing a butchers apprenticeship. It was a job and he needed one so got stuck in and did his time.

“I had just had a baby with my partner and needed a full-time job and would take anything I could get,” Carl says.

That was it for Carl for a few years, but he still had a hankering to get his hands dirty in the workshop and talking with Lloyd’s Garage owner Andrew Lloyd a few years ago, he found out there was an opening.

“I didn’t have to do my pre-trade again, I just took up where I had left off and away I went; it was just a couple of years’ worth of units which was good,” Carl says. While Carl was finishing his apprenticeship, Andrew had to take a year and a half off so with the help of seasoned mechanics Ray Hartley and Rob Wilson, he kept the work flowing through the workshop.

Office Manager Nem Lloyd says because the business is small, having the right personality is just as important as having the knowledge to do the job, and Carl was a perfect choice.

“It’s important to get the dynamics right, and just because someone is qualified doesn’t mean they are going to fit in,” she says.